“The center is a place where the physical and the digital come together, and a scholar can take advantage of both modes,” G. Salim Mohammed, head and curator of the David Rumsey Map Center, told Hyperallergic. Significantly, Rumsey didn’t just donate the maps themselves, but also their digital versions. Before most libraries and museums were digitizing their collections, Rumsey was working on better ways to offer high-resolution images online, including the development of Luna Imaging, now a widely used display tool. His collection is joined at the center by Glen McLaughin’s Maps of California as an Island, the Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections, and more than 10,000 maps from Stanford Libraries’ special collections, making it a cartography hub for the campus.

At the center, students, faculty, and anyone doing scholarly research can view a physical map or atlas, while simultaneously using one of two large screens to zoom in on its details. Georeferencing data situates the maps spatially, so that multiple maps can be laid over each other in the digital interface. Additionally, Oculus Rift VR and iPad Pros are on hand for in-depth exploration.

The center is also designed to accommodate some of its more colossal objects, like a 10-by-5.5-foot William Smith Map and a 11-by-17-foot Ōmi Kuni-ezu Japanese Tax map. “The center can, with its combination of tables that can be assembled together, actually put these maps on view,” Mohammed explained.

The possibilities for the center’s displays, both physical and digital, feel just about endless.

“This experience of being able to view and interact with the maps in different ways gives you a new perspective on the material,” Mohammed said. “In some ways, we don’t know what might come of it, and in that sense, we act as a geo-garage, a laboratory for all things cartographic. At Stanford we are always interested in thinking out of the box. You never know for certain where it will lead.”